Project portfolio management challenges and how PMO can help
Project portfolio management (PPM) is a complex process of selecting, prioritising and managing an organisation’s projects where, typically, the larger the organisation, the more projects needing management. As such, there are many elements that can go wrong or, indeed, pose challenges to project teams and Project Management Offices. So, here we’ll discuss common project portfolio management challenges and how PMO can help.
Project portfolio management challenges
Gaps in collaboration & communication: especially when managing or working within large project teams that use a variety of methods to communicate, communication can cause one of the biggest project portfolio management challenges; leading to duplication of work, tasks remaining incomplete and misunderstandings/mistakes along the way.
Lack of data visibility: without a centralised location where key project metrics can be easily viewed and analysed by all relevant members of the team, project portfolio management falls down; especially where those metrics may be stored locally, on an Excel spreadsheet or similar. Without access to data, project teams will inevitably lack understanding of project progress, outstanding or upcoming risks, budget, timelines and roles & responsibilities.
Irregular or insufficient reporting: regular reporting is an invaluable tool in project portfolio management – providing project teams and stakeholders with an overview of key project metrics which, in turn, enables those involved to analyse, evaluate and assess progress, efficiencies and risks, as well as plan & forecast into the future. However, reporting is something that can often pose a challenge for busy teams focused on hands-on project management, particularly if key project metrics are kept in various locations across the organisation, making reporting a time consuming and arduous task.
Low productivity: lack of data visibility, insufficient reports, lack of communication and manual report writing, including hunting for the data needed, can all lead to a lack of productivity within project teams; with individuals spending more time than necessary on low value tasks such as chasing emails, searching for information and key project metrics or duplicating tasks already complete yet unreported.
How PMO can help
Sycamore Gap’s PMO solution has been designed to help PMO Leads and Project Management teams improve productivity, communication and overall efficiency, offering professionals a way to automate reports, track vital portfolio and project metrics, configure documents, and mitigate risks.
Automatic notifications, audit logs, and workflows enable teams to maintain consistent processes; all of this enabling teams to avoid the time-consuming and error-prone manual cut’n’paste of data and quickly produce professional, consistent reports.
To find out more about our PMO, please book a free demo or contact us.
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